PlanetCatfish.com

Just a bump to see how everyone is going.

Just got back from weeks away and my megalechis are growing nicely they are now about 1-1.5"
So it's gonna be a while.

Matt

I have a group of five at around the 1" mark. They do grow very fast and I am putting them into a larger tank in a week or two.

Jools

Well,

mine are in my friend's tank since building a fishroom is much more difficult that I initially thought. So it will take next 2 months or even a little bit more to done it. But it will be almost perfect ;). Almost because it always could be a bit bigger

My dianema are doing OK - I lost two "jumpers", but I have two that are slightly larger and two smaller ones. They are fairly inactive, and not very interested in eating when lights are on.

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Mats

My 5 M.thoracata are eating like pigs and growing fast, largest is maybe 3 inches, the others at about 1.5 or 2 inches. No signs of being ready to breed yet.
Just saw MatsP's post so a tank lid is the next purchase

Blarx,

Three of mine pegged it in the space of 16hrs.
They were in a tank with a load of 10mm satanoperca fry, didn't lose one cichlid.
How bizare.

Matt

Things have settled down now, I wonder what it was, any ideas anyone?

Matt

Things have settled down now, I wonder what it was, any ideas anyone?

Sorry Matt you need to give more information than that but off the top what were they fed before this occurrence.
Birger

Things have settled down now, I wonder what it was, any ideas anyone?

I was wondering what happened too.
I once lost fish from a too-fast PH change (I think) because I only changed the bag water etc over maybe 20 minutes and they were going from 7.8 or so to 6.5. I couldn't find any other reason and I don't really know how drastic that is. Could it have been that maybe?

How are the source fish doing? I mean the others at the store or supplier. Maybe the whole batch had a few that were already unhappy when you got them. How many do you have left? Are they doing okay?

I'm gonna find out tonight how many are left later when I give the tank a good clean.

Birger: I fed them some live food from my vats.

Matt

Small milestone (yardstone?) to report: My 'big guy' has the orangey pectoral fin spines! Not slowly but overnight! The only bad part is that he's much bigger than the others, so I still have to wait Will get some pics of the orange fins after I clean the tank

Question: are Hoplos kind of messy with regard to their, um, output?

Night mare! I only have one left, out of 9!
What a dark day

Matt

Sorry to hear that Matt.

As you may have seen in the Callichtyidae "Some species are doomed" thread, I haven't had much luck with my TWO attempts to keep [never mind breed] . Unfortunately, my pain doesn't make your pain any smaller...

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Mats

Night mare! I only have one left, out of 9!
What a dark day

Matt

Ow that hurts, sorry to hear that
You're going to think I'm a dolt for suggesting this but is your tank "too clean" for this fish? I'm only thinking about the reference to "plant infested puddle" that was mentioned on the M.thoracata page. I know I'm grasping at straws but there's gotta be something we are overlooking with your fish.

grokefish wrote:Night mare! I only have one left, out of 9!
What a dark day

Matt

Sorry to hear that Matt

Is it the Thoracatum that have died?

Im sorry to have to says i will not be doing the challenge as Andy (my hubby) has sold most of the hoplos, littorale, pectorale etc.

If any of you live near Yorkshire UK... we still have some for sale... Callichthys, Pectorale, Punctatum. Hes keeping the Thoracatum but we have some F1 young too.

L number Banana wrote:Small milestone (yardstone?) to report: My 'big guy' has the orangey pectoral fin spines! Not slowly but overnight! The only bad part is that he's much bigger than the others, so I still have to wait Will get some pics of the orange fins after I clean the tank

Question: are Hoplos kind of messy with regard to their, um, output?

Hmmm, looking at the pictures, if it has orange spines, I would guess its a rather than the The picta have orange in their fins, the thoracata do not (based on pictures in the catelog)

Does anyone agree with me here?

hoplo wrote:

grokefish wrote:Night mare! I only have one left, out of 9!
What a dark day

Matt

Sorry to hear that Matt

Is it the Thoracatum that have died?

Yes, all the baby satanoperca Lucostica are fine!!!!!!!

weird........

Matt

nvcichlids:

Hmmm, looking at the pictures, if it has orange spines, I would guess its a Megalechis picta rather than the Megalechis thoracata The picta have orange in their fins, the thoracata do not (based on pictures in the catelog)

I'm pretty sure they're M.thoracata but the reddish fin ray is only on one fish. It also looks to have a greyish tail instead of a dark band across it and has a very spotty belly. I got the info about the red fins from the species page under "Sexing". It says," A sexually mature male exhibits a thickened first pectoral ray which ranges from orange / brown to scarlet in colour."

I wouldn't mind having M.picta, they're pretty nice too I've only been wrong a few billion times before though
I only have the one not-so-good picture right now:

I'm pretty sure they're M.thoracata

I would have to say you are correct.

Birger

I would agree also based on the picture. Just looked over the picta and thought when you said orange pec that it could be.

yeah I'm pretty sure they're thoracata- they lack the dark vertical bar running through the caudal fin that's pretty diagnostic for picta. Are your males darker under the chin than the females? All my males seem duskier in that region than my females.

Carp37:

Are your males darker under the chin than the females? All my males seem duskier in that region than my females.

That's the only one I know the sex of Still can't figure out the others but those little plates underneath and on each side seems to be more visible now and are getting darker. They're the coracoid bones I think. I'll have to feed them in brighter light to really check out the chin area. The smallest ones still look pure white and spotty underneath. This picture is from the M.thoracta species page in the Cat-elog but it shows the two darker bits underneath. Mine are not touching like this one but are kind of darker than the white spotty belly bits.


What's your water at, just out of curiosity?
I've stopped being so clean about their water since I saw some at a breeder's house. Lots of plants and LOTS of organic stuff floating around!! I didn't have the nerve to ask about the readings but the fish breed like rabbits and are huge and healthy, so I'll do a little less vacuuming....
I'm trying 22c temp and am trying to ignore bits of stuff floating around, still keeping things at 0,0 Nitrite and nitrate (not exactly 0 on either but trying!!) my ph is 7.4. I add 6.4ph rainwater when I remember. Haven't checked ammonia for a while but I'm guessing the plants are using that up before it can do any damage.
Fingers crossed.
Refresh my brain, How many do you have, size?
I have just the five, smallest is 6-8 cm and the largest might be 10-11cm. I put them in a 15 gal tank. Still have the danios for company

Finally was able to source a young pair of .
Should be breedable in a month or so.

L number Banana wrote: What's your water at, just out of curiosity?
I've stopped being so clean about their water since I saw some at a breeder's house. Lots of plants and LOTS of organic stuff floating around!! I didn't have the nerve to ask about the readings but the fish breed like rabbits and are huge and healthy, so I'll do a little less vacuuming....
I'm trying 22c temp and am trying to ignore bits of stuff floating around, still keeping things at 0,0 Nitrite and nitrate (not exactly 0 on either but trying!!) my ph is 7.4. I add 6.4ph rainwater when I remember. Haven't checked ammonia for a while but I'm guessing the plants are using that up before it can do any damage.
Fingers crossed.
Refresh my brain, How many do you have, size?
I have just the five, smallest is 6-8 cm and the largest might be 10-11cm. I put them in a 15 gal tank. Still have the danios for company

I've got 5 females (3 from June '07, the others from last July) and 4 males (all from last July) but they're in my 5' and 4' tanks. The biggest males and females are a little over 4" SL now.
I've still not got room to try breeding them so they're at about 24-25 degrees C (but rocketed up this week with a mini-heatwave which has killed a lemon barb, a melon barb and a rasbora due to dissolved oxygen issues), pH a little under 7, water quite soft. I'm hoping to throw a male and female into a 2.5' 20 gallon tank (UK) in a month or so but don't anticipate much success!

I've got 5 females (3 from June '07, the others from last July) and 4 males (all from last July) but they're in my 5' and 4' tanks. The biggest males and females are a little over 4" SL now.
I've still not got room to try breeding them so they're at about 24-25 degrees C (but rocketed up this week with a mini-heatwave which has killed a lemon barb, a melon barb and a rasbora due to dissolved oxygen issues), pH a little under 7, water quite soft. I'm hoping to throw a male and female into a 2.5' 20 gallon tank (UK) in a month or so but don't anticipate much success!

Sorry to hear about losing your barbs and rasbora
Do you think your pack may be ready now? They sure sound like they're old enough to want to spawn. Have you tried leaving them where they are and just providing a 'bubble holder' like a plastic lid or is there others in the tank that may want to snack on any eggs? Do they not spawn if there are a whole crew together?

These may be kind of newbie questions but I'm surprised you've had them that long and they haven't given you a tank full of bubbles already. I'm still very new to this

My group are up to 5cm TL now, time to think about moving them to larger premises!

Jools

L number Banana wrote:Do you think your pack may be ready now? They sure sound like they're old enough to want to spawn. Have you tried leaving them where they are and just providing a 'bubble holder' like a plastic lid or is there others in the tank that may want to snack on any eggs? Do they not spawn if there are a whole crew together?

These may be kind of newbie questions but I'm surprised you've had them that long and they haven't given you a tank full of bubbles already. I'm still very new to this

I think mine should be ready now, yes, as the larger males have shot up in length over the last month and are now about the same size as the older females- I just haven't had the tank space to give them a chance. I don't think the males try to build a bubble nest in tanks with a lot of water movement, which is what they've got at the moment! I just need to clear another 7 or 8 bristlenose and get another sponge filter and air pump (the bristlenose and apple snails ate the last filter!) and give it a try in one of the 30" tanks.

The only cats I've raised are Brochis splendens and bristlenose (the cory sterbai spawn every time I get a temperature spike but I've not had the space to try and rear them), and I've never tried to persuade any bubblenesters to spawn, so even if I get a spawn I'll be a bit dubious about getting ti right first time.

Carp37:

....so even if I get a spawn I'll be a bit dubious about getting ti right first time.

That's why we're all here! If anything ever happens with mine I'll be squeezing every bit of info out of everyone I can For instance, I read that mine prefer 'plant infested puddles' but my little brain didn't clue into the low water movement, duh...I was concentrating more on the water quality that would occur in a situation like that. Thanks for the tip!
I think the challenge is more to help each other with the experience rather than hardcore competition. Everyone guided me through my first C.paleatus spawning and now I'll be trading them in for some new guys

Keep us posted!

Here are my fish. Hopefully a pair.